Direct-attached storage (DAS) refers to a data storage system that is directly attached to a server or workstation. The data capacity and connectivity of the DAS system may be improved through the use of switches or expanders, which enable a large bank of DAS devices to be coupled to multiple servers. The storage resources of the DAS devices are made accessible to servers by configuring zone groups, which control how the expanders route connections through the switch to couple specific servers to specific storage drives. Often, components of the DAS system are implemented as blade devices deployed in a blade enclosure. For example, a single blade enclosure may include several blade servers, array controllers, SAS switches, and storage drives, among other components. The blade enclosure can provide a variety of services such as power, cooling, networking, various interconnects, and system management.
In a blade-based SAS switch storage configuration, a zone group can be configured by assigning a group of drive bays to one or more initiators via the blade enclosure interconnect bay ports. Blade servers can include slots, referred to as mezzanine slots, which are configured to receive expansion cards that provide additional functionality to the blade server. When an initiator, such as an array controller, is inserted into a blade server mezzanine slot, the controller's ports are routed to designated interconnect bay ports. Zone groups may be assigned to these interconnect bay ports. In some cases, configuring a zone group is not always as simple as it appears. For example, mezzanine slots in blade servers may be routed through physical connections to specific interconnect bay locations of the blade enclosure. If the user is unclear about how the physical connections are routed, the user may incorrectly assign a zone group to the wrong interconnect bay port.